Around your office, somewhere in Selma, a co-worker has asked you to chip in this year. And somewhere, in a hospital across town, a friend or relative has been diagnosed with cancer.

This weekend, the office staff and the relative will join forces in the annual Relay-for-Life. This weekend, Selma should get involved in fighting one of the most deadly, and incurable, diseases we have in this nation.

Each year, companies around Selma gather to walk around a track for an entire night. The walk, symbolic of the long journey we have faced in fighting cancer, will mean very little on a world-wide scale. It’s most likely that the funds raised from our small event will make a dent in the billion-dollar industry researching a cure for cancer. But then again, will the dent really be that small?

It’s a lot like an election. When a million people vote in a presidential election, one vote matters little. But what if the attitude of one person who chose not to vote seeped out into the community? What if a whole block chose not to vote? What if a whole county chose not to vote?

The comparison can easily be made to cancer research. Sure, Selma could skip its Relay-for-Life this year. So could Perry County, and Chilton County, and Shelby County and Tuscaloosa County. But what if that attitude seeped across the state? What if it seeped across the nation?

We in Selma have learned — the hard way — that keeping a positive attitude about everything can make the difference between success and failure. The people at the American Cancer Society have learned that lesson in a way much harder than we.

Each day, that organization watches benefactors die. They watch patients in hospitals crumble in pain. Yet that organization, so important to the welfare of our nation, continues its tiring work for funding a cure to cancer.

No, you may have never had a bout with cancer. It may be that no one in your family has, either. But if it hasn’t happened yet, statistics prove cancer will bite one day.

As a community, we should support the American Cancer Society and the Relay-for-Life.